Although there is little expectation UCSC will receive or become eligible to receive significant additional funds to reimburse costs, should an opportunity present itself (FEMA, etc.) information will need to be quickly assembled from units across the campus regarding relevant expenses or cost impacts to enable submission of claims or proposals. Keeping track as we go will enable us to be more readily responsive when needed.
In the event of significant operating revenue loss to the campus in general, such as tuition loss, state funding loss, or other core funds loss, it may be necessary in the future for campus leadership to consider rebalancing resources on a one-time basis across campus units. The information provided by units on COVID-19 financial impacts will be critical for this analysis.
Please check back frequently as this is still a rapidly changing situation. Updates will be made to this webpage as new information becomes available.
Principles
Necessary tracking should not be onerous. The goal is to use existing campus systems and business practices and straightforward tracking tools to the extent possible, not to create new systems or laborious processes.
Tracked expenses and losses should include only those costs that reflect new/different/increased services or needs explicitly related to COVID-19 response actions. For example, increased costs of cleaning more frequently should be tracked whereas the normal cost of cleaning routinely should not.
Methods for Tracking
The Accounting Office has established activity code COVD19 which may be used by any unit or project, when feasible, along with the unit’s org code and fund code for relevant increased or new expenses.
The Budget Office will create unique org codes upon request for units needing to track significant numbers of transactions, such as completely new business functions (EOC, etc.), or for those units that are financially organized by activity code first (colleges, Humanities, etc.) and need to continue to use their pre-existing activity codes.
All COVID-19 related expenses need to be reported on the COVID-19 Financial Tracking Workbook to be submitted to the UCSC COVID-19 Financial Impact Team for consolidation and submission to agencies such as UCOP Department of Finance, FEMA, and the California Office of Emergency Services. The information on the Financial Tracking Workbook will be matched against ledger transactions (where applicable) to provide required backup documentation such as invoice and payroll expense postings.
For general expenses, only include transactions that have posted to the ledger (FIS). Do not include Purchase Orders or Invoices pending payment.
COVID-19 Financial Tracking Workbooks need to be submitted to covid-cost-tracking@ucsc.edu monthly by the last calendar day of each month.
Additional Information and Answers
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Academic Employee Time Tracking
- Per Office of the President direction, time tracking reporting should not be performed for any academic employees who do not report time.
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Contract Cancellation
- If you need assistance with the cancellation or termination of a contract, please contact Business Contracts at businesscontracts@ucsc.edu. Depending upon the terms of the contract, we may be able to rely on a number of defenses for cancelling or terminating the contract(s) at issue.
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Exempt Employee Time Tracking
- In general, tracking of time spent on COVID-19 response activities by exempt employees should not be tracked for reimbursement purposes, as it will not be eligible per FEMA rules. There are some Exceptions to be aware of.
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Extramural Contract & Grant Funded Expenses
- Costs for COVID-19-related general and labor expenses that are charged to extramural contract & grant funds are not reimbursable to UCSC, and therefore should not be added to the COVID19 Tracking Workbook, and do not need to use the COVD19 Activity Code. If you have already used the COVD19 Activity Code, you do not need to correct (transfer); we can identify the fund source and remove from reporting.
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Leave Taken by Employees
- COVID-19-related leave is being tracked in CruzPay and UCPath using specific pay and earnings codes. See the SHR COVID-19 Resources for information about COVID-19-related leave tracking.
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Non Exempt Employee Time Tracking
- In general, only overtime hours earned during a pay period where an employee worked on COVID-19 response activities are reimbursable. If unclear if an employee earned overtime hours for a particular pay period, include their hours on the tracker, and the Cost Recover Team will confirm. Note that there are some Exceptions to be aware of.
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Pro-Card Purchases
- COVID-19-related purchases paid for with a Pro-Card should be logged on the Expense Tab of the COVID-19 Financial Tracking Workbook. Be sure to include the Pro-Card invoice number (Axxxxxxx) that posted in FIS Banner.
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Recharge Income Impact
- Reduction in recharge should not be tracked as a Revenue Loss, as revenue is defined as income from external customers. Recharge income impacts will be available through ledger review.
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Revenue Loss Projections
- Campus units or revenue generating activities should include estimates of revenue losses for each month on the Revenue Loss Tab of the COVID-19 Financial Tracking Workbook. The most viable method of projection may be comparison to historic patterns. However, if a unit or revenue generating activity has records of specific customer cancellations or refunds issued, those should be used for tracking.
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Travel Cancellations
- If travel is cancelled for COVID-19 reasons, the cost of any cancellation or change fees can be reported on the Expense Tab of the COVID-19 Financial Tracking Workbook. The cost of the trip itself is not reportable. See Reimbursement for Travel Impacted by Coronavirus for guidance on travel-related considerations.